DONG... DONG... DONG.
The ominous, rhythmic tolling of the Sovereign Peak iron war bell rolled across the mist-shrouded valleys, striking three heavy notes every sixty heartbeats to mark the dawn of the new dominion.
Above the limestone ridges of Azure Peak, the sky remained trapped in a perpetual, bruised purple gloom that choked out the morning sun, casting sickly violet shadows over every courtyard and stone thoroughfare.
Where the blue crane banners of the Azure Cloud Sect had once flown from the parapets, long streamers of heavy black silk embroidered with weeping crimson crescent moons now hung limply in the dead wind.
CRACK!
A braided leather whip tore through the thin mountain air, striking the bare, sunburnt shoulders of a mortal quarryman who had collapsed beneath the weight
